Georgia Ag January 2012

AGNewsGeorgia Inside:

Landscape pruning Page 3Protecting peaches Page 7Space travel food Page 11

Urban farm Page 13

Free

North Georgia’s Agricultural Newspaper January 2012

See IPE/IFE, Page 6

Photo by David B. Strickland

Farm-City breakfast: The recent Hall County Farm-City Breakfast was a chance to herald the praises of ag-riculture, as well as noting the importance agribusi-ness has to Georgia’s econ-omy. That message was shared by the breakfast’s guest speaker, Bryan Tolar, right, president of the Geor-gia Agribusiness Council. Tolar was welcomed to the event by Michael Wheeler, Hall County Extension co-ordinator, as both hold the proclamation presented by the Hall County Board of Commissioners declar-ing Farm-City Week in Hall County.

USDA forecastingbroiler productiondecrease for 2012

By David B. StricklandGeorgia Ag News [email protected]

WASHINGTON — Produc-tion of broiler meat is being fore-cast to decrease in 2012, to 36.7 billion pounds, a decrease of 1.7 percent, due to higher prices of corn and soybean meal, as well as the slow economy, USDA’s Eco-nomic Research Service notes in its recent Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook.

In regard to broiler and tur-key exports, there was a noted increase in September from last year’s amounts.

“Broiler shipments totaled 637 million pounds, a 3.1 per-cent increase from September 2010 shipments,” ERS reported. “Turkey shipments totaled 58.8 million pounds, an 18 percent increase from last year.”

See Forecast, Page 12

2012 IPE/IFE set for Atlanta

Photo by David B. Strickland

Poultry expo: Approximately 900 exhibitors and 20,000 attendees from all across the U.S., and the world will be on hand for the Inter-national Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Jan. 24-26.

By Barbara OlejnikGeorgia Ag News [email protected]

ATLANTA — Poultry Week, proclaimed for the week of Jan. 22-28 by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, will be full of activities for the poultry and egg indus-tries, including the 64th annual International Poultry Expo sponsored by the U.S. Poul-try & Egg Association and the International Feed Expo spon-sored by the American Feed Industry Association.

The 2012 IPE/IFE will be held Jan. 24-26 at the Georgia World Congress Center. The trade show will showcase in-dustry developments including advancements in feed milling,

hatchery, live production, pro-cessing, marketing and other support activities.

Scheduling for the 2012 IPE/IFE has been moved to a Tues-day through Thursday event, which is expected to provide additional time for educational meetings as well as separate organizational meetings held in conjunction with the Expo.

While the trade show part of the Expo provides an opportu-nity to view a large display of equipment, supplies and ser-vices to the poultry, egg and feed industries, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the accompanying educational sessions of the 2012 show.

In fact, five new educational

programs have been added to the 2012 activities that IPE/IFE attendees can sign up for.

Those programs are Chart-ing the Course: An Executive Conference on the Future of the American Poultry Industry, Jan.24; Charting the Course: An Executive Conference on the Future of the American Egg Industry, Jan. 24; IPE Pre-Har-vest Food Safety Conference, Jan. 24-25; International Ren-dering Symposium, Jan. 26-27; and a Poultry Leaders of the Future: Managerial Basics Workshop, Jan. 26-27.

Other educational programs at the IPE/IFE include the Ani-

2 GEORGIA AG NEWS, January 2012

By Michael RupuredSpecial to Georgia Ag News

ATHENS — Clipping coupons and thrifty shopping are back in style. Reality shows and specialty blogs feature super coupon users who pay pennies on the dollar at the grocery store. Spending an hour or two preparing to shop be-fore you head to the store can help you save money.

Out of all of the categories in your personal spending plan, you have the most control over your food budget. The amount you spend at the grocery store depends entirely upon the choices you make. Here are some tips from University of Georgia Cooperative Extension for saving money when making food purchases.lMake menus, then a shop-

ping list.Plan ahead. Think about the

meals you need to prepare be-

tween now and the next time you will shop. The more detailed your menu is, the more help it will be when you get to the store. Better yet, use your menu to create your shopping list.

Never go into the grocery store without a list. Shopping without a list makes you much more likely to buy impulse items and other things you may not need. Without a list, you are also more likely to forget something, which means making another trip to the grocery and more impulse buys. Get to know the store you use the most, and list the items you need in order of where they are in the store.l Buy produce in season.Buy fresh fruit and vegetables

when they are in season. For exam-ple, instead of buying blueberries in winter months and paying for the shipping and import fees, buy them in the summer when they are more likely to be grown nearby.

You get a fresher product and hang on to more of your money. The food section in your local newspaper usually features articles and recipes on seasonal items.

CouponsFood companies release cou-

pons to increase sales, especially for new products. Use coupons to save money on items you usually buy anyway. Avoid buying items you would not normally purchase just because you have a coupon.

Even with a coupon, brand name products are often more expensive than other options. Consider buy-ing the store brand instead of the national brand. If you compare ingredients, you will often find no difference between store and na-tional brands. As far as taste goes, store brands are often as good and in some instances, even better than national brands.

Compare costsUse the unit price to compare

costs. The unit price is how much the item costs per ounce, pound or other unit. Contrary to what many people think, the largest size is not always the cheapest. You can find the unit price on the shelf sticker.

Paying attention to how you

shop at the grocery store can help you get more for your food dol-lar. Saving a few dollars each trip to the store may seem to be more trouble than it is worth. Those few dollars each week can add up to a

lot of money in a year or two.

Michael Rupured is a financial specialist with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Coupon clipping and comparison shopping

Stephanie Schupska/UGA

Buy in season: Comparing unit prices and buying produce when it’s in season are just two money-saving tips from University of Georgia Cooperative Extension experts.

By April SorrowSpecial to Georgia Ag News

ATHENS — High Road Craft Ice Cream won top prize in the dairy division of the 2011 Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest. Since winning the University of Georgia contest, the company has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Eight months ago High Road Craft sold its

handmade ice cream to about 50 restaurants in Atlanta. Today, their creamy desserts are fea-tured in 150 restaurants, 22 Whole Food Mar-kets and on the shelves of specialty markets from North Carolina to Colorado.

“The Flavor of Georgia contest really brought a lot of exposure to us, our sales have quadru-pled,” said Nicki Shroeder, the company’s chief marketing officer. “After winning the contest, we could add ‘Flavor of Georgia Award Win-ner’ to our marketing materials and it gave cred-ibility to our products.”

Flavor of Georgia 2012contest accepting entries

See Contest, Page 10

April R. Sorrow is a news editor with the Uni-versity of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

GEORGIA AG NEWS, January 2012 3

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University of Georgia receives $16K grant

TUCKER — The University of Georgia Poultry Science Department recently received a $16,334 student recruiting grant from the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association Foundation.

Tom Hensley, president of Fieldale Farms and USPOUL-TRY board member, presented the check to Dr. Mike Lacy, professor and head of the Poultry Science Department at the University of Georgia. Mike Giles, president of the Georgia Poultry Federation, and Abit Massey, GPF’s pres-ident emeritus, assisted with the check presentation.

“The University of Geor-gia Department of Poultry Science uses funds from the USPOULTRY Foundation to attract students to its majors through summer programs, which introduce high school students to the interesting field of poultry science,” Lacy said. “Funds are also used to create recruiting materials to help students who are already attending UGA, but are not fa-miliar with the poultry science, become aware of the tremen-

dous number and diversity of career opportunities available in the poultry industry.”

The USPOULTRY Founda-tion board recently approved student recruiting grants to-taling more than $180,000 to the six U.S. universities with poultry science departments and 14 other institutions with poultry programs. The founda-

tion provides annual recruiting funds to colleges and universi-ties to attract students to their poultry programs.

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is an all-feather organization representing the complete spectrum of the poultry industry. Founded in 1947, the association is based in Tucker, Ga.

Special

UGA grant: The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association Foundation recently presented the University of Georgia Poultry Science Department with a $16,334 student recruiting grant. On hand for the presentation were, left to right, Dr. Mike Lacy, head of the UGA Poultry Science Depart-ment; Tom Hensley, president of Fieldale Farms, as well as a USPOUL-TRY board member; Mike Giles, president of the Georgia Poultry Fed-eration; and Abit Massey, GPF’s president emeritus.

By Paul PuglieseSpecial to Georgia Ag News

CANTON — As the days get shorter and plants go dormant for winter, many homeowners become anxious to prune their landscapes. For most trees and shrubs, pruning in the fall isn’t the best time.

Some woody trees and shrubs can be injured during winter from pruning cuts or open wounds that won’t have a chance to

heal properly until next spring. An open wound in the winter is more likely to suffer damage from water freezing and thawing inside the cracks and crevices of the exposed wood.

February/MarchIt is generally better to prune

trees and shrubs in February or early March just before spring growth begins. This is the ideal time to prune fruit trees, shade

trees, crape myrtles, shrub ros-es, hollies and other evergreen plants.

Pruning in late winter mini-mizes the time the wound is ex-posed. As trees break dormancy in the spring, their rapid growth will quickly heal over any ex-posed wounds or cuts. Wound sealants or pruning paints are not recommended. Numerous studies have shown that these products actually slow or delay

the healing process and provide little or no benefit.

ExceptionsOf course with any rule there

are a few exceptions. Herba-ceous perennial plants like daylilies, peonies, black-eyed susans, hostas and purple cone-flowers can be cut back once they are dormant. Remove dead leaves and stems in the fall and add mulch to protect roots from freezing weather.

Some gardeners don’t cut back perennials, such as orna-mental grasses, until late winter because their dormant leaves provide winter interest and tex-ture to the landscape.

Other exceptions are trees and shrubs that produce flowers on old wood, or buds formed dur-ing the previous season. Pruning these trees while dormant will not harm them, but the follow-ing year’s flower buds will be sacrificed.

Examples of trees and shrubs that bloom on old wood are dog-woods, redbuds, flowering cher-ries, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, climbing roses that bloom in spring, forsythias, li-lacs and viburnums. These trees and shrubs should be pruned im-mediately after their blooming season ends to avoid removal of next year’s flower buds. Most of these plants have obvious flower buds that should provide a fair warning not to prune them. If renovation or renewal pruning

is necessary during the dormant season, don’t expect many flow-ers for at least a year.

Use sharp toolsHand pruners are your best

tool. Avoid using gas-powered trimmers when doing major corrective pruning and reshap-ing jobs. The bypass cut or scis-sor type pruners are the most useful. Anvil-type, hard pruners aren’t as good as they tend to crush rather than cut limbs. Use lopping shears to prune small trees or shrubs with diameters up to 1.5 inches. For plants with branches more than 2-inches thick, use a pruning saw.

Make sure your tools are sharp. Sharp tools will make cleaner cuts and allow them to heal faster. When pruning dis-eased plants, consider steril-izing the pruning blades with a 10-percent bleach solution. This should especially be done between individual plants. This will minimize the spread of dis-eases from plant to plant.

When you finish pruning, don’t just throw your pruning tools in the shed. Clean them and apply a light coat of house-hold oil to prevent rust.

Paul Pugliese is the agriculture and natural resources agent for the University of Georgia Co-operative Extension office in Cherokee County.

Hold off on pruning plants in your landscape


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Corporate HeadquartersPoultry TimesP.O. Box 1338

Gainesville, Georgia 30503Telephone: 770-536-2476;

770-718-3444 (after 5:30 p.m.)Fax: 770-532-4894

General ManagerCindy Wellborn770-718-3443

[email protected]

Editorial/Advertising StaffEditor

David B. Strickland770-718-3442

[email protected]

Associate EditorBarbara L. Olejnik

[email protected]

Graphic ArtistCourtney Canaday

[email protected]

Account ExecutiveStacy Louis

[email protected]

Account ExecutiveDinah Winfree770-718-3438

[email protected]

Companion Publications:Poultry Times; A Guide to Poultry Associations; Poultry Resource Guide.

The opinions expressed in this publication by authors other than Georgia Ag News staff are those of the respective author and do not nec-essarily reflect the opinions of Geor-gia Ag News.

Georgia Ag News assumes respon-sibliity for error in first run of an in-house designed ad only. Advertisers have ten (10) days from publication date to dispute such an advertise-ment. After ten (10) days, ad will be deemed correct and advertiser will be charged accordingly. Proofs approved by advertiser will always be regarded as correct.

By Mike GilesSpecial to Georgia Ag News

GAINESVILLE — How often have you had conversations with colleagues and partners in other sectors of agriculture about how we need to do a better job of tell-ing the amazing story of mod-

ern poultry product ion and agricul-ture in gen-eral? Maybe it was about the need to educate our youth, or perhaps it was about trying to re-verse myths

among consumers about how poultry and other food products are produced.

There appears to be a revolu-tion happening that could have a dramatic impact on poultry producers and our partners in agricultural food production. I’m not talking about techno-logical advances that will en-able farmers and food producers to provide even safer and more healthy foods or ones that will allow us to continue to make ef-ficiency improvements which will make our poultry opera-tions even more sustainable in the future — though these ad-vancements are sure to happen in the coming years. I’m talking about the ways in which farm-ers and food producers respond to consumers’ insatiable curios-ity about the food they purchase

and feed to their families.Conversations are happening

at the dinner table, among neigh-bors and friends and perhaps most significantly online in the social media space. Those who are critical of modern farming practices have been actively en-gaged in these conversations for some time, in many cases driv-ing the discussions. There are millions of consumers though that simply have questions about the food they eat — where it was produced and how it was raised. As they should be, consumers are curious and are looking for answers. The question remains whether their questions will be answered by those who know the most about agriculture and food production, farmers and food processors, or whether they will be answered by critics with a bias against modern agricul-tural practices.

Farmers across the nation are stepping up to the challenge. There are farmers speaking out on Twitter with tens of thou-sands of followers. They are talking about their everyday activities associated with rais-ing food and caring for animals, and at the same time they are de-mystifying what it means to be a family farmer for millions of those curious consumers.

Organizations such as the Ag-Chat Foundation and the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) are among those facil-itating these online discussions. The Alliance is a coalition of more than 50 national, regional and state agricultural groups and their partners. The poultry industry is an active partner in this coalition through the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and

United Egg Producers. USFRA is billed as the first collaboration of such a wide range of groups gathered to lead a dialogue about how food is raised.

USFRA started by listening to people to learn what ques-tions they have about how food is raised and what is most im-portant to them as consumers. It turns out that some of the mes-sages that we in agriculture have used for years, while true and important, might not be what consumers are most interested in. For example, 64 percent of consumers say that keeping food prices low is very important, but they also want to know that the food they feed their families is safe and healthy for them in the long term. On the other hand, they might be less interested in how U.S. agriculture creates jobs and is poised to feed a hun-gry world over the coming de-cades.

The poultry industry has a remarkable story to tell when it comes to providing affordable food.

According to Dr. Mike Lacy, head of the Poultry Science De-partment at the University of Georgia, “Chicken and eggs sell today for about one-eighth of the cost they did in 1950, when you consider the value of the dollar in 1950. Taking into account the change in the value of the dol-lar, essentially, chicken today is selling for $4.90 less per pound and eggs $13.20 less per dozen. It is almost impossible to find another commodity that sells for the same price now as it did in the 1950s.”

At the same time, the wide va-riety of poultry products avail-able to consumers has never

been safer or more beneficial to the long term health of their families. These are two mes-sages that are at the heart of what consumers say is important about the food they purchase and consume.

Environmental sustainability is another topic that consum-ers want to know more about. Large scale agriculture is often

painted as being not sustainable, whatever that means. Some say big is bad, and small or locally produced is good. For poultry producers, what is lost in the comparison are the tremendous gains in efficiencies that have occurred over the recent decades. Breeding programs initiated in

Agriculture raises a collective voice

“Consumers have questions about the food

they eat . . . Farmers across the nation are stepping up to the challenge . . . talking about their everyday activities . . . demystifying what it means to be a family farmer.

”

Giles

Mike Giles is president of the Georgia Poultry Federation with offices in Gainesville, Ga.

See Giles, Page 7


By Lynne FinnertySpecial to Georgia Ag News

WASHINGTON — Every summer, rural teenagers get jobs on local farms to earn some cash while being outdoors. Some just enjoy helping a relative or neighbor on his farm or ranch — be-cause it really is a great experience to drive a tractor.

Across rural America, young people help cut and bale hay on other people’s land. In the Midwest, many a teen has worked as a corn detasseler, removing tassels from one variety of plants so they can be pollinated by another and create a high-yield hybrid. For others, their first job might have been picking fruit in an orchard.

By working on farms, their own fam-ily’s or someone else’s, young people learn about agriculture, how to respect and care for animals and how to work safely with farm equipment. They also learn important values, such as a good

work ethic and taking on responsibil-ity.

But under a Labor Department pro-posal, such work could be off-limits to minors. They would not be allowed to work on a farm that isn’t directly owned by their parents or operate any power-driven equipment — even something as simple as a battery-powered screw-driver.

“Under this proposal, it sounds like youths would be allowed to push open the barn door, but whether they can flip the light switch inside is unclear,” ex-plained American Farm Bureau labor specialist Paul Schlegel. “But they sure couldn’t use a flashlight or pick up a weed whacker. And they couldn’t go up in the barn loft because it’s greater than 6 feet above ground level.”

The real impacts aren’t fully under-stood. It could depend literally on how government regulators write the final rules and then interpret them. Most likely, young people couldn’t even

work on their own family farm if, like many farms these days, it’s set up as a corporation or partnership, not wholly owned by the kid’s parents.

The Labor Department says its pro-posal is needed to protect young people from dangerous work. However, as is often the case when the feds deal with an issue, the proposal goes too far. It’s like trying to kill a gnat with a sledge-hammer.

Farm work can have its hazards, and no one wants kids working when and where they shouldn’t be. But ask any farmer how she learned to do farm work, correctly and safely, and you’re likely to hear that she grew up doing it on either a family farm or through agricultural education programs, which also would be at risk if kids are not al-lowed to do many farm tasks.

If we can’t train the next generation of farmers, then the implications go beyond whether a teenager can earn a

little spending money.Parents, not the federal government,

should decide what’s safe for their kids. For those jobs that are particularly hazardous, the government has a role to play. But the government should at least write rules that won’t threaten the very structure of family farms and rural communities.

The comment period on the proposal has closed. Now the government will continue with the rulemaking process. As it does, it is hoped that the rules will make more sense for how farms work today, and for youngsters who want the experience of working on a farm.

It will be important for farm families and agricultural educators to weigh in to ensure that outcome.

Lynne Finnerty is the editor of FB-News, the newspaper of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Youth farm work opportunities at risk

By John HartSpecial to Georgia Ag News

WASHINGTON — In these challenging economic times, consumers are looking to save money in any way they can. This certainly is true at the grocery store where many customers turn to coupons, advertising cir-culars and loyalty cards to keep more dollars in their pocket at the checkout line.

The diversity of American agriculture succeeds in provid-ing our nation’s consumers with a vast array of food products. Shoppers today can select foods based on production practice, lo-cale or value pricing. They can make those purchases at tradi-tional grocery stores, specialty

venues, large discount chains, farmers’ markets or even farm-direct stands.

Regardless of where shoppers go to make their food purchases, however, price always comes into play. And for people who make their decisions on price alone, it is important to remem-ber that food prices could be much higher if it weren’t for the efficiency of today’s agriculture and food systems.

Compared to other nations, American-grown food is afford-able. That is a fact that today is often taken for granted — so much so that many scoff at its mere mention. But even in this what-have-you-done-for-me-lately environment, it is still valuable to look at the underly-ing reasons for the success.

Modern farm families and the methods they use to grow food help ensure U.S. food afford-ability and quality is among the

best in the world. This fact goes far beyond any relief provided at the checkout counter by the re-demption of a cents-off coupon.

Foremost among the tools farmers use is a delicate but precise combination of nutrient management, crop protection and advancements in biotech-nology. A precise plan to control insects, weeds and plant diseas-es allows farmers to grow more food using fewer resources on fewer acres.

Since the 20th century, U.S. farmers have relied on advances in science and technology to meet the food needs of an ever increasing global population. It has been a true miracle of sci-ence, but it has also been a mir-acle of economics.

A new study conducted for CropLife America by agrono-mist Mark Goodwin reveals

Ag Science is delivering great value

See Hart, Page 6

John Hart is director of news services for the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washing-ton, D.C.


ATHENS — Agriculture is the food you eat, clothes you wear and the fuel that runs your life. From the local Georgia farm to the globally stocked supermarket, access to safe and affordable prod-ucts is important.

Learn what’s ahead for this vital industry at the 2012 Ag Forecast series to be held 10 a.m.-noon:

l Jan. 23 in Macon,l Jan. 24 in Tiftonl Jan. 25 in Statesborol Jan. 26 in Gainesvillel Jan. 27 in CarrolltonProducers, policymakers,

agribusiness professionals and consumers will hear the 2012 economic outlook for agricul-ture from University of Geor-gia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences economists. Regional speak-ers will discuss farm labor is-sues.

Participants will receive a copy of the 2012 Ag Forecastbook, which gives a detailed analysis of each major agri-cultural product — from broil-ers to blueberries — produced

in Georgia.The UGA CAES, Georgia

Farm Bureau and the Georgia Department of Agriculture an-

nually present the series.Registration is $30 per

person or $200 for a table of eight. More information and

registration can be obtained at http://www.georgiaagforecast.com. Registration deadline is Jan. 19.


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mal Ag Sustainability Summit, Jan. 23; Interna-tional Poultry Scientific Forum, Jan. 23-25; Pet Food Conference, Jan. 24; Hatchery-Breeder Clinic, Jan. 24-25; and the AFIA International Feed Education program, Jan. 25.

USPOULTRY is also collaborating with the University of Georgia for the school’s Interna-tional Poultry Short Court and Poultry Process-ing Spanish Course, which will be held Jan. 27-Feb. 1, and will include free admission to the IPE/IFE 2012.

Various allied organizations will be hold-ing committee, board and annual meetings throughout the week. One such organization is the National Poultry & Food Distributors Association, which will hold its annual con-vention on Jan. 24-27 in conjunction with the IPE/IFE.

The annual Expo ranks as the largest annu-al trade show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. An estimated 20,000 people are expected to pass through the center’s doors during the week.

Governor Deal, in welcoming the IPE/IFE to the city, noted that Atlanta also provides many attractions, including fine dining and historic sites.

“We hope you have the opportunity to enjoy Atlanta’s sites and experience the hospitality that is so much a part of our everyday lives,” the governor said.

The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau provides a list of “50 Fun Things to See and Do in Atlanta” on a web site at http://www.atlanta.net/50fun/.

More information on the 2012 International Poultry Expo and the International Feed Expo can be found at http://www.ipeweek12.org.

•IPE/IFE(Continued from page 1)

the economic benefits of pesticides. The research finds that American families save 35 percent on fresh fruit and 45 percent on fresh vegetables because of efficiencies in crop production as a re-sult of crop protection products. The average sav-ings on food from the use of conventional crop protection techniques for a family of four is 47.92 percent overall.

Goodwin’s research also shows that the use of crop protection products adds $82 billion in in-creased yield and quality to field, nut, fruit and vegetable crops. Increased crop production from the use of crop protection products results in more than 1 million jobs generating more than $33 billion in wages for U.S. workers, according to Goodwin’s research.

The use of modern crop production tools by farmers also reduces the need for tillage, which cuts fossil fuel use by 558 million gallons per year. And thanks to scientific techniques, farmers now

produce four times as much corn and wheat as they did in the early 1900s, without impacting forests or wetlands.

Because of modern agricultural practices and equipment, including satellite and computer technology, methods used to control weeds, insects and diseases today are very precise. Farmers also follow a strict set of regulations and are educated in selecting and applying only those crop protection products allowed by fed-eral mandates.

As Goodwin’s research shows, you can put a very valuable price tag on the economic ben-efits that American agriculture brings to the checkout counter. It remains a topic worthy of mention, even though for many consumers it has become a basic expectation. But being able to meet that expectation also has helped put other food quality choices in reach for all Americans.

•Hart(Continued from page 5)

Ag Forecast meeting set for January

April R. Sorrow is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricul-tural and Environmental Sci-ences.


Proud to be a part of the Hall County Communityfor over 60 years.

Our company has been active

in the poultry and feed industry

since 1947. Sin

ce 1

947

the U.S. have provided specialized poultry breeds that produce more eggs and meat with less feed.

In 1950, it took 10 weeks and more than 10 pounds of feed to grow a 3.2 pound broiler. Today, broiler growers produce a 5 pound chicken in about six weeks and only need a little more than 9 pounds of feed to do so.

The poultry industry has also made strides in other areas such as conserving water and energy. Large scale agricultural production and “sustainable” aren’t mutually exclusive, but acknowledging that this is im-portant to consumers and communicating our achieve-ments in this area is the responsibility of these new agricultural voices.

There are lively conversations happening online about how antibiotics are used, how livestock and poultry are cared for and what is the difference be-

tween a “family farm” and a “factory farm.” The dif-ference seems to be that agricultural voices are being heard in response to questions from typical consumers who want to know more about how food is raised in our nation.

It is no surprise that hard-working farmers and the innovative people in food processing believe that agriculture is under appreciated and that the positive messages about how food is produced isn’t getting through to consumers. At the same time, we can’t ignore USFRA’s survey result which says that 42 percent of consumers believe that the U.S. is “on the wrong track” in the way we produce food.

Check out the site where USFRA is facilitating this discussion — http://www.fooddialogues.com — you will find the discussions to be interesting, and you might even find yourself diving into the conversa-tion.

•Giles(Continued from page 4)

USDA Agricultural Research Service

Protecting peaches: USDA Agricultural Research Service pathologist Andy Nyczepir has found that growing a type of tall fescue grass as a cover crop in peach orchards can result in bigger trees with fewer problems from nematodes compared to soil that is fumigated to deal with these pests.

By Sharon DurhamSpecial to Georgia Ag News

BELTSVILLE, Md. — Planting tall fescue grass as a ground cover in peach orchards helps protect peach trees from nematodes that attack tree roots, according to USDA scientists.

In a study published in the Journal of Nema-tology, USDA Agricultural Research Service plant pathologists Andy Nyczepir at the South-eastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Labora-tory in Byron, Ga., and Susan Meyer at the Nematology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., tested several tall fescue varieties to find out if they could thwart four troublesome root-knot nematode species — Meloidogyne incognita, M. hapla, M. javanica, and M. arenaria.

In the study, Nyczepir and Meyer found that a commercial tall fescue, MaxQ, prevented M. incognita and M. hapla from reproducing. M. javanica has a low level of reproduction on MaxQ, but M. arenaria can reproduce on it.

Traditionally, growers have fumigated peach orchard soils prior to planting and then used a nematode-resistant rootstock. But in recent years, growers have faced tough times that have made it difficult to afford preplant fumi-gants, such as Telone II or Vapam.

Many growers also have difficulty fumigat-ing at the recommended time of year because of conflicts with managing other crops.

In Georgia, rotation with coastal Bermuda grass, which can also be harvested for hay, is recommended for control of root-knot nema-tode.

According to Nyczepir, their studies show that MaxQ may have potential as a preplant control strategy for M. incognita and M. hapla in southeastern and northeastern areas of the United States. Using this tall fescue as a pre-plant cover crop treatment may allow growers to reduce the use of chemical nematicides.

Preliminary data from the team’s field trials using the fescue as a preplant cover crop have so far found that peach trees planted after the cover crop are larger than those planted in soil that is not fumigated.

ARS is USDA’s principal intramural scien-tific research agency, and the research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

Sharon Durham is a public affairs specialist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Ser-vice in Beltsville, Md.

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By Sharon DowdySpecial to Georgia Ag News

ATHENS — A lush sod-ded-turfgrass lawn can be the envy of the neighborhood, but people who want to install sod lawns next year can expect to pay more, according to a Geor-gia Urban Ag Council ancillary survey.

Eleven producers participated in the September telephone sur-vey, representing farms ranging from less than 300 acres to more than 900 acres.

The survey results help land-scape companies bid jobs for 2012. It also responded to scat-tered reports of currently low inventory, elevated prices and the likelihood of limited supply next year, said Clint Waltz, turf-grass specialist with University of Georgia Cooperative Exten-sion.

The big three“Considering the ‘big 3’ spe-

cies, bermudagrass, centipe-degrass and zoysiagrass, most growers anticipate increased prices in 2012,” he said. “From this survey it’s evident that turf-grass prices are rising on the two species in greatest production.”

All the surveyed producers grow bermudagrass. Forty-six percent rated their fall inventory as adequate to excellent. Mov-ing into 2012, 55 percent pro-jected having less than adequate supplies.

Of the 11 producers surveyed, eight grow centipedegrass. Eighty-eight percent have ad-equate to excellent inventory. Thirteen percent of the centi-pedegrass growers anticipate a shortage during 2012.

This fall, 60 percent of all zoysiagrass producers surveyed project a shortage of grass with 67 percent of the larger growers, or those growing more than 600 acres, projecting a shortage.

St. Augustinegrass is grown by three of the 11 producers

surveyed. Of those, 67 percent report adequate supply.

All tall fescue producers reported adequate inventory, which continues a seven-year trend.

Prices upWhen it comes to price, the

on-the-farm fall 2011 prices for bermudagrass, zoysiagrass and tall fescue had a substantive price increase from spring 2011, according to the survey. There was a rise in the delivered price for bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, tall fescue and St. Augustine-grass.

The average price per square foot for a truckload of bermu-dagrass delivered to the Atlanta area, or within 100 miles of the farm, increased from the spring. This fall’s average delivery price was the greatest documented in the last decade. Regarding grow-er price expectations, 91 percent expect bermudagrass prices to increase while 9 percent expect them to remain steady.

The fall 2011 average price for a delivered truckload of zoysiagrass also increased from spring 2011. For zoysiagrass, 80 percent of producers anticipate rising prices in 2012, while 20 percent forecast no change.

Prices continue to rise for centipedegrass, reversing a three-year falling trend for that species.

The delivered price of tall fescue rose 12.1 percent for fall 2011, reversing the spring de-cline in price from 2010. Half of centipedegrass and tall fescue producers expect prices to re-main constant.

The price of delivered St. Au-gustinegrass rose from spring to fall. This fall’s rise (11.4 per-cent) negated last spring’s 3.2 percent decrease from 2010, Waltz said. Some 67 percent of St. Augustinegrass producers expect prices to increase.

“Contributing factors that

may explain these data are basic economics, drought and indus-try constriction. It would stand to reason that as supply dimin-ishes and demand either remains constant or increases, the price would rise,” Waltz said. “En-vironmental conditions across Georgia during 2011 were not ideally conducive for sod pro-duction, particularly in the state’s southern production region.”

Less growersDuring the past five years

the number of sod producers in Georgia has declined, as have the total acres in turfgrass pro-duction. In 2007, the Georgia Crop Improvement Associa-tion reported 45 growers with 11,977 acres in certified turf-grass. These numbers fell to 34 producers with 6,633 acres in 2011, a 24 percent reduction in number of growers and 45

percent reduction in acres. The UGA Farm Gate Value Repot estimated 50,595 acres in 2007 and 33,986 in 2009.

“These interrelated factors are likely contributing to lower inventories and increased pric-es. This late in the production season it is not possible for pro-ducers to establish new fields or push existing immature turf to make up for the shortfall of grass,” he said.

Sod inventories will recover over time, he said. In the mean-time, prices will likely remain high or possibly increase.

The complete Georgia Urban Ag Council ancillary survey can be obtained at http://www.geor-giaturf.com.

Sharon Dowdy is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and En-vironmental Sciences.

Georgia sod prices up, production down

Sharon Dowdy/UGA

Sod lawns: Installing a sodded-turfgrass lawn will cost more in 2012, a recent survey shows.

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By Sharon DurhamSpecial to Georgia Ag News

BELTSVILLE, Md. — Research performed by scientists at the USDA and published recently in the journal Crop Science has demonstrated that mineral levels in new varieties of broccoli have not declined since 1975, and that the broccoli contains the same levels of calcium, copper, iron, mag-nesium, potassium and other minerals that have made the vegetable a healthy staple of American diets for decades.

“This research provides data on the nutritional content of broccoli for breeders to consider as they further improve this important vegetable,” said Edward B. Knipling, administra-tor of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the department’s principal intramural scientific research agency. “The research demonstrates how ARS is helping to find answers to agricul-tural problems that impact Americans every day, from field to table.”

A team of three scientists evaluated

the mineral content of 14 broccoli cul-tivars released during a span of more than 50 years: ARS geneticist and research leader Mark Farnham at the agency’s U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C.; plant physiologist Michael Grusak at the USDA-ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas; and Clemson Uni-versity scientist Anthony Keinath.

The researchers grew the 14 cul-tivars in two field trials in 2008 and 2009, and harvested florets for test-ing.

“Our studies show that not much has changed in terms of mineral content in the last 35 years in a crop that has un-dergone significant improvement from a quality standpoint and that was not widely consumed in the United States before the 1960s,” said Farnham.

Broccoli florets in the study were tested for levels of calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, man-ganese, molybdenum, sodium, phos-phorous, sulfur and zinc. Results indi-cated significant cultivar differences

in floret concentrations of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, sodium, phosphorous and zinc, but not of po-tassium, manganese, molybdenum or sulfur. There was no clear relationship between mineral concentration and re-lease year.

“For broccoli cultivars grown dur-ing the past 35 years, when hybrids became the standard cultivar, evidence indicates that mineral concentrations remain unchanged,” said Farnham. “As broccoli breeders continue to im-prove this crop in the future, data from this study can serve as a very useful guide in helping breeders understand the variation in mineral concentrations they should expect among their breed-ing stocks and also provide a realistic baseline that should be maintained as other characteristics are manipulated in the future.”

Sharon Durham is a public affairs spe-cialist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md.

USDA Agricultural Research Service

Healthy broccoli: USDA Agricultural Research Ser-vice agronomist Sharon Benzen in Salinas, Calif., displays a sample of fresh grown broccoli. ARS re-searchers have seen that broccoli types through the years have not declined in nutritional content.

Broccoli packed with health


Make it at Home RecipeMini Cheddar Quiche Bites

American Egg BoardServings: makes 24 mini quichesPrep time: 10 minutesCook time: 12 to 15 minutes

Ingredients: 1/4 to to 1/2 cup panko or regular bread

crumbs4 eggs1/3 cup half-and-half1/4 tsp. salt1/8 tsp. pepper1-1/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (5 oz.)

Directions:Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously spray

24 mini-muffin cups with cooking spray. Pat 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crumbs in the bottom of each muf-fin cup. Tap muffin pan to lightly coat sides of each muffin cup.

Beat eggs, half-and-half, salt and pepper in medium bowl until blended. Add cheese; mix well. Spoon evenly into mini-muffin cups, about 1 tablespoon each.

Bake in 350 degrees F oven until just set, 12

to 15 minutes. Cool on rack 5 minutes. Loosen quiches from sides of muffin cups with a thin knife. Remove from cups; serve warm.

Leftovers are good cold or reheated briefly in the oven or microwave. Great for snacking or a quick breakfast on the run.

For added flavor — add 1/3 to 1/2 cup cooked crumbled bacon, sausage or chopped ham with cheese.

More egg recipes may be obtained from the American Egg Board at http://www.incredi-bleegg.org.

2012 contestOn March 13, the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic

Development will reveal the winners of the 2012 Flavor of Georgia contest at Georgia Ag Day.

Judges look for market-ready foods — either commercially avail-able or prototypes — from across the state. Categories include bar-becue and hot sauces, confections, dairy products, meat products, snack foods, and jams, jellies and sauces. Entries are judged on flavor, best use of Georgia ingredients, Georgia theme, unique or innovative qualities, commercial appeal and originality.

Flavor of Georgia is only a starting point for many of the category winners, said Sharon Kane, contest director.

“More than 70 percent of last year’s contestants saw an increase in their sales, publicity, business contacts and product interest fol-lowing the contest,” Kane said.

Winning atmosphereShroeder said winning helped boost her business, but fostering

relationships with other contestants and judges was another prize handed out by the contest.

“We got a lot of great feedback about the product from judges,” she said. “And being a part of something with so many great Geor-gia businesses was really rewarding. It is a neat event where we are paying homage to each other.”

High Road Craft Ice Cream works with another contestant, South-ern Swiss Dairy, to source fresh dairy for its cream.

Product registrations will be accepted through Feb. 10, 2012. Semifinalists will be announced in February. Final judging will be March 12 at the Freight Depot in Atlanta. Register early and receive a reminder to send in products for judging.

Contestants can register online at http://www.flavorofgeorgia.caes.uga.edu and save $10 off registration fees.

More information can also be obtained at 706-542-9809, or [email protected].

The annual food contest is sponsored by the CAED in partnership with the Center of Innovation for Agribusiness, Office of Governor Nathan Deal, Georgia Department of Agriculture, Georgia Agri-business Council, Walton EMC and the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology.

•Contest(Continued from page 2)

By Ann PerrySpecial to Georgia Ag News

BELTSVILLE, Md. — Com-puter simulation studies by sci-entists at the USDA suggests that a dairy cow living year-round in the great outdoors may leave a markedly smaller ecological hoofprint than its more sheltered sisters.

USDA Agricultural Research Service agricultural engineer Al Rotz led a team that evaluated how different management sys-tems on a typical 250-acre Penn-sylvania dairy farm would affect the environment.

ARS is USDA’s chief intra-mural scientific research agen-cy, and this work supports the USDA commitment to promot-ing sustainable agriculture. Rotz

works at the ARS Pasture Sys-tems and Watershed Manage-ment Research Unit in Univer-sity Park, Pa.

For this study, Rotz and his team used the Integrated Farm System Model, a computer program that simulates the major biological and physical processes and interactions of a crop, beef or dairy farm.

The scientists collected a range of field data on grazing systems, manure management and their effects on nutrient loss to the environment. Then they used their farm model, supported by the field data, to evaluate the environmental dy-namics of four different dairy farms in all types of weather for a span of 25 years.

The model generated esti-mates for ammonia emissions from manure, soil denitrifi-cation rates, nitrate leaching losses, soil erosion and phos-phorus losses from field run-off. Estimates for emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from both primary production and the secondary production of pes-ticides, fuels, electricity and other resources were also con-sidered.

Compared to high confine-ment systems, keeping dairy cows outdoors all year low-ered levels of ammonia emis-sion by about 30 percent. The model results also indicated that the total emissions for the

greenhouse gases methane, ni-trous oxide and carbon diox-ide were 8 percent lower in a year-round outdoor production system than in a high-produc-tion confinement system.

Another plus: When fields formerly used for feed crops were converted to perennial grasslands for grazing, carbon sequestration levels climbed from zero to as high as 3,400 pounds per acre every year.

The results also suggested that a well-managed dairy herd kept outdoors year-round left a carbon footprint 6 percent smaller than that of a high-production dairy herd kept in barns.

Ann Perry is a public affairs specialist with the USDA Ag-ricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md.

USDA: Field-raised cows benefit environment


By S. SchupskaSpecial to Georgia Ag News

ATHENS — With a grant from NASA, food scientists at the University of Georgia aim to create zero-oxygen storage foods for deep-space travel. They admit to still be-ing a few years away from that goal, but they recently made great strides that will translate not only into improved foods for space but for Earth-bound grocery shelves, too.

Essential to life, oxygen is the death knell for stored foods. It causes foods to stale, turn brown and rot. Oxygen reacts with vitamins, carbo-hydrates, lipids and proteins, gradually deteriorating pack-aged foods’ quality, flavor and texture. Even canned and vacuum-packed foods, which contain small amounts of oxy-gen, eventually oxidize.

“All foods deteriorate from the time of packaging to the time they reach your table,” said Aaron Brody, an adjunct professor of food science and technology at UGA. “Whether the food is dry, wet, refriger-ated, or frozen, oxygen is the bad actor.”

Brody and UGA food scien-tist Louise Wicker, his partner on the project, hope to store foods for a minimum of five years.

“The food packaging is al-ready there, but it doesn’t do any good to have barrier packaging if you don’t have the lowest-oxygen food going into the package,” said Wicker, coordinator of UGA’s masters of food technology program. She dubbed their most recent

achievement “micro-oxygen foods.”

While the beer and wine in-dustries have achieved great strides in removing oxygen from liquids, the solid food industry can make no such claim. The UGA scientists are the first to wrench so much

oxygen from solid foods that it’s detectible only in parts per million.

“We’ve so far achieved 30 parts per million,” said Wick-er, “but we’re working toward 30 parts per billion. When that happens, we’ll call them nano-oxygen foods.”

Solandre Pérez Almeida, a UGA graduate student who now works in quality assurance at the Flanders Provision Co. in Waycross, Ga., also worked on the project. Her hands were often in the oversized gloves of the low oxygen processing chamber, peeling bananas and

squeezing oranges with the aim of removing as much oxygen from these fruits as possible.

Pérez Almeida used liquid nitrogen to gradually purge ox-ygen from the chamber, where she processed the fruit under micro-oxygen conditions.

Bananas and oranges were

used because they are highly nutritious, but according to Wicker, they also presented great challenges in removing oxygen. Orange juice is oxy-gen-sensitive and it oxidizes quickly, affecting flavor. Ba-nanas, highly perishable, also contain an enzyme, polyphe-nol oxidase (PPO), which, in the presence of oxygen, causes browning almost im-mediately.

“When we saw browning on the bananas inside the cham-ber we suspected that PPO doesn’t follow conventional enzyme kinetics under micro-

oxygen conditions, and that was confirmed by later analy-sis,” Wicker said.

Astronauts on the Interna-tional Space Station enjoy a wide variety of foods, from multi-grain Cheerios, cashews and banana pudding cookies to broccoli au gratin and tofu with hot mustard sauce. Most astronauts are in space for six months or less, so food stor-age, while important, hasn’t posed major restrictions. But developing safe, high-quality foods for deep space travel — a trip to Mars that could last three to five years — is critical.

Link to Earth“One of the more important

criteria for space food is that it’s ‘Earth-like,’” said Michele

Perchonok, an advanced food technologist at NASA. “Com-fort foods — those we grow up with like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and chicken noodle soup — are foods the astronauts crave, es-pecially when they’re in space for many months. The tubes and cubes of the Mercury and Gemini era just don’t meet those comfort food criteria.”

Wicker agrees. “Tang is great, but it’s not orange juice,” she says. “Food is such a critical part of who we are. It’s our link to Earth.”

Wicker and Brody work primarily with fruits because they are high-acid foods not given to the growth of harm-ful pathogens. Low-acid foods

Storage solutions sought for space travel food

Photo courtesy of NASA

Food for space travel: Deep-space travel will require foods that con-tain such low levels of oxygen that they can be stored for years while retaining their quality. As it turns out, this is a valuable trait for food stored here on Earth as well, University of Georgia researchers note.

Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia Public Affairs Of-fice.

See Space, Page 13

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BroilersIn the fourth quarter of 2011, ERS

projects broiler meat production at 9 bil-lion pounds, a decrease of 5.1 percent from last year.

“The lower fourth quarter production is expected to be driven by sharp declines in the number of birds slaughtered, but these declines are expected to be somewhat off-set by an increase in average live weights,” the department noted. “Over the last sev-eral weeks, preliminary slaughter data show a lower overall number of broilers slaughtered driven by reduced numbers of lighter birds, pointing toward higher aver-age weights.”

For the third quarter of 2011, production of broiler meat was 9.53 billion pounds, an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous year, ERS said. The report notes that this was the result of a 3 percent increase in av-erage bird live weights to 5.80 pounds, and that it worked to offset a 2.9 percent de-crease in the number of slaughtered broil-ers.

“Broiler meat production in 2012 is fore-cast at 36.7 billion pounds, a decrease of 1.7 percent from 2011,” the report said. “The decline in broiler meat production is ex-pected to come mainly from a lower num-ber of birds slaughtered, as bird weights are expected to be close to or slightly higher than in 2011.

“Broiler integrators are not expected to have any strong incentive to expand pro-duction, due to the combination of contin-ued high prices for corn and soybean meal and relatively low broiler product prices at the wholesale level. Demand growth will likely be dampened by relatively slow eco-nomic growth and continued high unem-ployment.”

ERS added that the most recent broiler hatchery report (Nov. 5) indicated that for the previous five weeks, chicks placed for growout were 7.9 percent less that for the same time last year.

“This 5-week moving average has be-come more strongly negative over the last several months,” ERS said. “The number of chicks placed for growout is expected to re-main well below year-earlier levels through the remainder of 2011 and into 2012, but gradually to become closer to year-earlier levels in mid-2012.”

EggsFor the third quarter of 2011, production

of table eggs was just more than 1.65 bil-lion dozen, a slight increase from 2010, the report said.

“On a year-over-year basis, table egg production has now risen in the last 11 con-secutive quarters,” ERS noted. “With the number of table egg layers in production in-creasing from the previous month, table egg production is expected to continue above the previous year’s level in fourth quarter 2011. However, overall table egg produc-tion in 2012 is expected to be only about even with the previous year, as weaker egg prices, high grain costs and a slowly grow-ing economy dampen expansion.”

Third quarter 2011 production of hatch-ing eggs amounts to approximately 264 million dozen, a decrease of 7 million dozen, or 2.6 percent, from the same time last year.

“Hatching egg production is expected to be sharply lower in fourth quarter 2011 as broiler producers cut back on production.” ERS said. “The decrease in third quarter 2011 was chiefly due to a lower number of meat-type hens as the demand for broiler chicks declined. Hatching egg production is expected to level off in the latter part of 2012 as broiler production starts to gradu-ally expand.”

Third quarter prices for wholesale table eggs were about $1.18 per dozen, a 25 cents per dozen increase from 2010, the report said.

“Seasonally higher demand in fourth quarter 2011 is expected to boost prices somewhat, to $1.26-$1.30 per dozen,” ERS noted. “This increase would leave table egg prices slightly higher than the $1.23 aver-aged in fourth quarter 2010. Prices in 2012 are forecast to be slightly lower, as exports are expected to decline slightly, placing more eggs on the domestic market.”

TurkeysFor the third quarter, turkey meat produc-

tion was approximately 1.4 billion pounds, which is an increase of slightly less than 1 percent from 2010, the report said.

Similar to broilers, third quarter turkey production, “saw a reduction in the number of birds being slaughtered and an increase in their average weight,” ERS said. “In the

case of turkeys, the number of birds slaugh-tered in the third quarter was 61.9 million, down 1 percent from the previous year. Off-setting this was a 2 percent increase in live weights to 28.9 pounds.”

For the fourth quarter, turkey meat pro-duction is being projected to be 1.5 billion pounds, also a slight increase from last year, the department added.

“Growth in turkey production in the second half of 2011 is expected to be quite different from the first half, which showed strong increases in turkey meat produc-tion,” ERS said, adding that, “turkey pro-duction in 2012 is forecast at 5.85 billion pounds, which would be an increase of just under 1 percent from 2011.

“Even though turkey prices have re-mained strong through all of 2011, turkey producers will be faced with the impact of high grain prices and a relatively sluggish domestic economy.”

ExportsFor poultry exports, the ERS reports

that third quarter shipments were “record-breaking.”

“September broiler shipments helped set a new record for broilers shipped in a given quarter; broilers shipped from July 2011 to September 2011 totaled al-most 2 billion pounds, which eclipses the previous record set in the fourth quarter of 2010,” the department noted. “The in-crease in broiler meat exports is largely fueled by demand from new markets. U.S. leg quarters are competitively priced, which is a major factor for both new and historical markets.”

In September broiler exports were ap-proximately 637 million pounds, an increase of 3.1 percent from 2010, ERS noted.

“While leg quarter prices are slightly higher than last year during this time, ex-change rates have kept prices competitive against other major broiler exporters, par-ticularly Brazil,” ERS said. “Shipments to major broiler importing countries such as Mexico, Cuba, Hong Kong, Angola, Ja-pan, United Arab and China rose from a year ago.

The top country for U.S. broiler exports for 2011 — Mexico — increased its im-ports by approximately 4 million pounds in September, the report said. Hong Kong also

increased its imports in September by about 30 million pounds more than in 2010.

“With the exception of September, ship-ments to Russia in the third quarter of the year have picked up and have been im-portant to the U.S. broiler market,” ERS added

For eggs and egg products, exports have remained strong in spite of “relatively vola-tile” prices in 2011, the department noted.

“In September, total egg exports were the equivalent of 26.1 million dozen eggs,” ERS said. “This is 9 percent higher than a year earlier and over the first 9 months of 2011, egg exports are 9 percent higher than during the same period in 2010.”

Shell egg exports “fell slightly, but those declines were more than offset by strong increases in exports of egg products,” the report said. “The increase in exports is re-lated to strong demand in a number of Asian countries and the weakness of the dollar against a number of other currencies.”

For the third quarter, total egg exports were approximately 70.6 million dozen, an increase of about 5 percent from the same time in 2010, ERS noted.

“With year-to-date exports down to Canada and a number of (European Union) countries, the increases have come from higher shipments to Mexico and a number of Asian countries, particularly Japan and Hong Kong,” ERS said.

For turkeys, approximately 173 mil-lion pounds of turkey meat, an increase of about 9 percent from last year, was ex-ported from July through September, the report said.

“Approximately half of this turkey meat was shipped to Mexico,” ERS said. “Ex-cluding Mexico, when compared with last year’s third quarter, more turkey shipments have been going to Hong Kong and Can-ada, while fewer have been going to the Dominican Republic and China.”

Turkey exports were about 58.8 million pounds in September, an increase of 18 per-cent from the same time in 2010, the report noted.

“Mexico and Hong Kong accounted for most of the increase from a year ago,” ERS said. “Shipments to Mexico increased 16 percent, while Hong Kong was up 56 per-cent. Given continued strength in turkey shipments, the fourth quarter projections were raised up 5 million pounds from (Oc-tober estimates).”

•Forecast(Continued from page 1)


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such as vegetables and meats are next on their agenda. These foods present a whole new set of food-safety challenges.

“If we get enough oxygen out of these foods, anaerobic pathogenic organisms like Clostridu-ium botulinum, which causes the foodborne ill-ness botulism, might start to grow,” Brody said. “But if we can simultaneously sterilize low-acid foods while removing the oxygen, we could get extraordinary results in low-acid products.”

He envisions a day when canned foods enjoy a new level of quality as well.

“We’re talking about canned food with the quality of frozen food and a shelf life of two years or more,” he said. “And it’s not merely

something for going to Mars. It would give us the ability to produce canned peaches that are just as good as fresh in terms of quality, aroma, and flavor. It’s not far away.”

“Imagine the energy savings associated with storing foods at ambient instead of chilled or frozen temperatures,” said Wicker, “and the food product has as high quality as the chilled or frozen counterpart.”

As the first researchers to start this kind of micro-oxygen work, they have problems to solve and new horizons to explore.

“Even if we’re able to get oxygen levels down to parts per billion, we don’t yet have the instrumentation to read it,” she said. “We’re entering a brave new world in food process-ing.”

•Space(Continued from page 11)

Urban farm project brings food downtown

Photo courtesy of Georgia Organics

City farm project: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has a plan to turn a vacant lot into a demonstration farm. A competition is being held to select a design for the garden which will be planted in the spring. Shown during the plan’s announcement are, left to right, Susan Varlamoff of the University of Geor-gia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Suzanne Burns of Sustainable Atlanta; Reed; and Karen Brewer-Edwards of Wal-Mart.

By Sharon DowdySpecial to Georgia Ag News

ATLANTA — A tree may grow in Brooklyn, but fresh vegeta-bles will soon grow in the heart of Atlanta on a plot of land the city’s mayor has designated as an urban farming educational site.

The 0.8-acre plot is located at 104 Trinity Ave. across from city hall. It was most recently the site of the city’s traffic court. A com-petition to select a design for the Trinity Avenue Farm closed Nov 1. Judges are currently review-ing designs submitted by Geor-gia designers. Work on the farm design will begin soon after the winner is selected.

The winning design team will

be given $25,000 from Wal-Mart, the major sponsor of the project. Other partners include the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Sustainable At-lanta, the Atlanta City Council, the University of Georgia Col-lege of Agricultural and Envi-ronmental Sciences, Georgia Or-ganics and Truly Living Well.

UGA Cooperative Extension agents in Fulton County assist-ed by testing the soil on the site and recommending steps to pre-pare the soil for plants by spring 2012. The agents will provide support for the garden by edu-cating the farm’s managers on community gardening and lo-cally-grown foods.

The demonstration project will support the City of Atlanta’s “Power to Change” sustainabil-

ity plan and its commitment to bring local food within 10 min-utes of 75 percent of all residents by 2020.

“Local, sustainable and organ-ic food practices have numerous health and environmental ben-efits,” said Susan Varlamoff, UGA’s director of environmen-tal sciences. “Local food is of-ten fresher, eliminates negative externalities, such as carbon emissions, and supports our lo-cal economy. We applaud Mayor Reed and the city for joining the local food movement by show-casing urban agriculture right in the heart of downtown.”

Sharon Dowdy is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Envi-ronmental Sciences.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The soy-bean checkoff talks a lot about U.S. soybean farmers’ number one customers — poultry and livestock farmers.

But these sectors impact

more than just a soybean farm-er’s profit potential. Accord-ing to a recent soybean-check-off-funded study, poultry and livestock supported 1.8 mil-lion U.S. jobs and added $19

billion in tax revenue annually to the U.S. economy.

“It’s important that we maintain and expand ani-mal agriculture in the United States,” says Laura Foell, a

soybean farmer from Schaller, Iowa, and a farmer-leader for the United Soybean Board. “It helps grow our U.S. soybean industry but is also a way we can keep jobs here and know we are producing safe and re-liable food.”

That economic impact ap-pears to be more than just a fad, the group noted. In fact, the poultry and livestock sec-tors increased household in-comes by more than $4 bil-

lion during the last decade alone. Nearly 70 percent of that growth occurred west of the Mississippi River or right on its borders, but trends show growth occurring more evenly throughout the country.

“This study shows the im-portance of animal agriculture not only to soybean farmers, but also to our local, state and national economies,” Foell

Soybean checkoff important to poultry

See Soybean, Page 14


Brad Haire/UGA

Cattle advisor web site: Beef cattle prices are high now and reached historic highs earlier in 2011. Facing drought and feed shortage, though, southeastern cattle producers still must make tough decisions when it comes to their financial bottom lines and keeping herds healthy. The Southeast Cattle Advisor web site — http://www.secattleadvisor.com — was developed by cattle experts with the University of Georgia, Auburn University, University of Florida and Clemson University to be a one-stop shop for cattle producers to get information on how to best manage their risk.

said. “And animal agriculture helps local businesses by pur-chasing goods in local stores and creating local jobs.”

Iowa and California won big for growth in earnings, jobs and tax revenue from animal agriculture, according to the study. Iowa added more than 19,000 jobs since 2000, while California added more than 17,000 in the same time period. These states added $176.2 million and $185.5 million in tax revenue respec-tively, the study found.

Poultry and livestock consume 98 percent of domestic soy-bean meal each year and help increase the value of U.S. soy-beans. The checkoff study showed most recently that consump-tion equaled 30 million tons of soybean meal, or the meal from approximately 1.2 billion bushels of soybeans annually.

More information on the United Soybean Board can be ob-tained at http://www.unitedsoybean.org.

•Soybean(Continued from page 13)


ATHENS — University of Georgia researchers recent-ly joined a national team of scientists working on a five-year, $4.1-million USDA grant designed around climate change’s effects on animal ag-riculture.

“Animal production is vi-tally important to Georgia’s economy,” said Mark Risse, an engineer with UGA Coop-erative Extension who is lead-ing the research at UGA.

“In 2009, poultry, beef cat-tle, dairy and swine accounted for nearly $5 billion of the ag-ricultural value in Georgia. It is important to keep our animal producers informed of practices that are environ-mentally sound, climatically compatible and economically viable.”

The goal of the USDA grant is to help livestock and poul-try producers adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change, especially as they face new weather patterns or regu-lations put in place to limit

greenhouse gases.“In the Southeast, we are

more interested in how our animals will respond to wa-ter,” Risse said. “As a region, the South is predominately poultry, so we will look heav-ily at the poultry industry and at what changes the industry may need to make and will focus on how to best equip producers to adapt to these changes.”

Risse is working with the Southeast Climate Consortium to identify climate projections that may affect animal agri-

culture. The consortium is predicting more weather ex-tremes — including more droughts and more flooding in the Southeast. Rainfall is expected to remain the same annually, but it will be de-livered in more concentrated rainstorms. Temperature in-creases aren’t expected to be as great as those in other re-gions of the U.S.

Risse, along with UGA Ex-tension, will work with pro-ducers in Georgia and across the Southeast to develop strat-egies to help lower animal management’s impacts on the climate.

“Roughly 10 percent of to-tal greenhouse gas emissions nationally are due to agricul-ture production,” Risse said. “But if we get to a point where greenhouse gases from poul-try and livestock farms are be-ing regulated, we need to have mitigation strategies in place to help producers reduce their emissions.”

With manure management, harnessing the gases as fuel is often a more economical practice than releasing it into the atmosphere, according to

Risse.“You can use those gases on

the farm as fuel instead of just letting them escape to the at-mosphere,” he said.

This is the third in a series of grants on environmental issues and animal agriculture that the National Livestock and Poul-try Environmental Learning Center have addressed. Pre-vious projects have focused on air and water quality. The other universities involved in the project are University of Nebraska, Washington State University, Texas A&M Uni-versity, Cornell University and University of Minnesota.

The National Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learn-ing Center will be the online resource for updated informa-tion. More information can be obtained at http://www.ex-tension.org/animal_manure_management. More informa-tion related to Southeastern climate change can be found at http://www.agroclimate.org.

April Sorrow is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

UGA joins national team on climate change


WASHINGTON — Dynamic Fuels LLC, a joint venture be-tween Tyson Foods Inc. and Syntroleum Corp., has been awarded a contract to supply the U.S. Navy with 450,000 gallons of renewable fuels.

Solazyme Inc., a renewable oil and bioproducts company, will help Dynamic Fuels fulfill the contract, which the Navy and the USDA report is the sin-gle largest purchase of biofuel in government history.

The contract involves supply-ing the Navy with 100,000 gal-lons of jet fuel (Hydro-treated Renewable JP-5 or HRJ-5) and 350,000 gallons of marine

distillate fuel (Hydro-Treated Renewable F-76 or HRD-76). The fuel will be used as part of the Navy’s efforts to de-velop a “Green Strike Group” composed of vessels and ships powered by biofuel.

The Navy contract follows on the heels of both compa-nies’ involvement in historic commercial airline flights us-ing biofuel. This includes Dy-namic Fuels’ renewable jet fuel work with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Finnair, Thomson Airways and Alaska Airlines, and Solazyme’s recent flight and partnership with United

Airlines, which includes a let-ter of intent to provide 20 mil-lion gallons a year starting in 2014.

The fuel for the Navy will be manufactured at Dynamic Fuel’s Geismar, La., renew-able fuels plant using U.S.-sourced yellow grease (used cooking oil) as well as So-lazyme’s tailored algal oil as feedstocks. The fuel will be de-livered to the U.S. Navy in May 2012. The Dynamic Fuels plant, which has been in operation for more than a year, is designed to convert non-food feedstocks such as algal oil, animal fats and greases into renewable fuels.

“This award clearly demon-strates that we’re building mo-mentum for the sale and use of our renewable fuels,” said Jeff Bigger, director of the Dynamic Fuels LLC Management Com-mittee. “We’ve previously pro-vided the U.S. military with fuel for testing. We believe this con-tract confirms they recognize the performance and environ-mental advantages of our fuel since they’re coming back for more and are asking for a much larger volume.”

“This is an historic contract and we are proud to be teaming up with Dynamic Fuels to pro-

duce and deliver the advanced biofuel to the U.S. Navy to sail the Great Green Fleet. Dynamic Fuels has been a leader in next generation advanced biofuels technology and this partnership further solidifies the progress that both of our companies are making in bringing advanced renewable fuels to commercial-ization,” said Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of Solazyme. “Solazyme is honored to be working with the U.S. Navy and DLA-Energy in driving forward the Navy’s ef-fort under Secretary Ray Ma-bus to source 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.”

U.S. Navy ships to be powered by biofuel

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Finally some clarity to a question that long has bedeviled mankind: Why did the chicken cross the road? The answer: It was going global.

Many Americans may be sur-prised to learn that the humble chicken is now synonymous with international trade. Twenty percent of U.S. chicken sales, by weight, go abroad.

That point was driven home on Sept. 20 when U.S. Trade Rep-resentative Ron Kirk announced he was dragging China before the World Trade Organization to dispute charges that U.S. poultry exports are sold at unfairly low prices.

The U.S. and China have ruf-fled each other’s feathers in recent years over restrictions imposed by each on poultry imports. But what wasn’t so clear in Kirk’s announce-ment is that the product being re-stricted by China was chicken feet.

Yes, chicken feet. That’s not ex-actly a part of the bird most Ameri-cans fight over at the dinner table, and it speaks to the globalization of

the common chicken.“We’ve always had two feet and

two wings and one head on every chicken we’ve raised. It wasn’t until about a little more than 10 years ago . . . that the U.S. industry discovered that China was a great market for chicken feet,” said James Rice, who ran operations in China for U.S. poultry giant Tyson Foods from 2004 to 2010. “Chicken foot has a higher value than breast meat in China. It’s a prized thing. It’s considered a very yummy delicacy. It might be our garbage, but it’s their breakfast, and it’s something they like.”

There’s a global pecking order for who gets what. “If you think of our everyday backyard chicken, it’s a global product,” said Rice, who is now chief executive in China for Dutch pastry giant CSM Foods (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. “An American chicken producer has to get the maximum price for their product, so you cut a chicken into parts and U.S. consumers only eat breast meat, so the breast is sold in the United States.”

“Legs and dark meat go to Russia, chicken feet go to China and the wings go to Hooters, and

when you get that right, you’ve maximized value for a chicken. So you need to get that chicken foot through to China,” he said.

But a year ago, China slapped unfair trade penalties on Ameri-can chicken feet. That was a re-taliatory strike; China is upset that congressional Democrats pulled funding for a USDA program that would have allowed about a dozen Chinese companies to export pro-cessed chicken products to the United States. China had worked with the USDA to meet the same requirements as U.S. producers of cooked chicken and was angry that the funds were cut off after outbreaks of tainted milk and other food scandals in China.

The two countries are now en-gaged in what might be called a high-stakes game of chicken. If negotiations in Geneva can’t pro-duce a compromise, an arbitration process would begin.

Meantime, U.S. poultry export-ers are effectively locked out of the lucrative Chinese market by penalties that make their product too expensive. That’s helped Bra-zil, which in recent years passed the United States to become the

world’s biggest poultry exporter.If China remains closed to U.S.

exports of chicken feet, it leaves U.S. exporters with little to replace a market that peaked at near $650 million just two years ago. That’s not chicken scratch, and U.S. pro-ducers will have to search for do-mestic sales, where it’s a buyer’s market for chicken feet.

“Here it’s worth 2 cents per pound. In China, it could be 35 cents to 45 cents or more, depend-ing on the maximum value of the foot. The highest price in the world is China,” Rice said.

If U.S. producers are forced to sell chicken feet domestically, there are low-value uses for the

feet, such as inclusion in pet food, grinding them into animal feed or “rendering” them into fats and pro-teins.

“That’s why the industry as a whole loses a lot by not having ac-cess to the Chinese market,” Rice said.

Almost nothing on a chicken goes to waste.

Feathers are sold to companies that grind them up because of the keratin they contain. The byprod-uct can be added to pet food and is an ingredient of plastic products.

Innards are sold for specialty cooking.

Who knew? Chicken feet are big business

See Feet, Page 16

IMPEXGainesville, Inc.

Systems for Livestock2170 Hilton Drive • Gainesville, GA 30501

770-534-1590 www.impex.nl

Happy Holidays!


Even the carcasses from deboned chick-ens have use, yielding meat that is mechani-cally removed in almost a paste form and sold to companies that make deli meats and sausages.

Chicken wasn’t a staple of interna-tional trade until the end of the Cold War. Before that, poultry exports weren’t much to cluck about, other than a small amount shipped out as foreign aid.

“What really started it in earnest was when the Soviet Union fell in 1989,” said Toby Moore, vice president of, and spokesman for, the USA Poultry & Egg

Export Council in Atlanta.“The first (President George H.W.)

Bush offered a food aid program to Russia. Part of that food aid was com-modity shipments of U.S. chicken leg quarters, and the industry saw an op-portunity to export parts that weren’t particularly in demand here,” Moore said. “They saw an opportunity to ship them overseas and make a little money . . . and chicken leg quarters were almost seen as manna from heaven. Out of that grew a thriving industry.”

In 1991, U.S. broiler exports to Russia were valued around $10.7 million. By 2000, the value had grown to more than $305 mil-lion. In 2006, it was above $725 million.

China sales grew more recently, from a modest $95 million in 2005, to more than $239 million in 2006. By 2009 they exceed-ed $647 million, only to plunge during the dispute in 2010, to $135 million.

China’s action against U.S. chicken feet affected producers across much of the U.S. Southeast, including Georgia, the nation’s leading poultry producer. Officials there are closely following the dispute with China.

Atlanta is a hub for many of the large trad-ing companies that send chickens on their international journey. The Port of Savannah boasts the busiest poultry-export operation in the country, moving about 40 percent of all U.S. containerized exports of poultry. It handled 1.6 billion pounds of poultry during

the fiscal year that ended June 30, moving more than 67,000 20-foot containers. Poultry is Savannah’s fourth-largest export product by volume, close behind fabric products, and trailing wood pulp and paper products.

Savannah’s port leaders gave the green light on Sept. 26 to spend $4.75 million on construction of additional refrigerated cargo racks for poultry that will provide even more space for stacking refrigerated shipping containers.

“Not only are we handling this com-modity now, we’re creating a larger foot-print and expanding our capacity to more even greater poultry exports in the future,” said Robert Morris, a spokesman for the Georgia Ports Authority.

•Feet(Continued from page 15)

WASHINGTON — On Sept. 7, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack announced the first themed message, “Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables,” support-ing the new MyPlate food icon and first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative through a new national private-sector partnership program.

“We know that consumers are inundated with multiple nutrition messages that it make it difficult to focus on changes that are neces-sary to improve their diet,” Vilsack said. “USDA is committed to help-ing Americans make healthier food choices and our MyPlate symbol is a great reminder to think before we eat. By working with our na-tional partners we can coordinate and amplify efforts to promote healthy eating tips like ‘Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables’ that serve as easy to understand re-minders that we can all incorporate into our daily lives.”

USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has called upon its 44 National Strategic Part-ners and more than 3,500 Commu-nity Partners to amplify this mes-sage nationwide.

National Strategic Partners are organizations, such as corporations and associations, that are national

in scope. Community Partners are organizations, such as health clin-ics, schools, gyms and weight loss centers, churches, doctors, etc., that serve local, state or regional individuals and families. More information about the partnership programs can be obtained at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/Partner-ships/index.aspx.

New messages in the months to come will include “Enjoy Your Food, But Eat Less;” “Drink Water Instead of Sugary Drinks;” “Make at Least Half Your Grains Whole Grains;” and “Avoid Oversized Portions.” USDA and its partners will find innovative ways to de-liver the easy-to-adopt how-to’s for these messages to empower consumers to make healthier food choices, the department said.

Originally identified in the Child Obesity Task Force report which noted that simple, actionable ad-vice for consumers is needed, My-Plate will replace the MyPyramid image as the government’s primary food group symbol as an easy-to-understand visual cue to help con-sumers adopt healthy eating habits consistent with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, USDA said.

USDA rolls out healthy eating theme

UVALDE, Texas — With drought conditions continuing, researchers with the Texas AgriLife Re-search and Extension Center have been focusing attention on improving varieties of more drought-tolerant crops, particularly melons, said the center’s administrator.

“We’re looking into improved varieties of melons, such as cantaloupe and honeydew, and are growing and assessing some Spanish and Italian specialty mel-ons that are relatively new to this area,” said Dr. Daniel Leskovar, Texas AgriLife Research vegetable physi-ologist and interim center director.

Leskovar said the goal of the research is to identify and produce melons with consumer-preferred charac-teristics, such as size, shape, color, texture, firmness and sugar content, as well as identify or develop other traits to improve them.

“In our melon breeding program, we’ve been evalu-ating the more well-known Texas-grown cantaloupe varieties for several years, but we’ve only been evalu-ating the possibility of commercially producing Span-ish, Italian and other specialty melons for the past few years,” he said.

He also noted that in addition to melon look, feel and taste, he and other researchers have been assessing overall food quality, yield, and disease and drought resistance.

“We’ve been interested in the possibility of specialty melons such as Tuscan-type melons with orange flesh, Galia-type melons with green flesh and canary types with near-white flesh, from the perspective of how they might fare as a high-value, high-income crop for Texas producers,” he said. “We’ve also been examin-ing the effects of factors such as deficit irrigation on their growth and productivity.”

Leskovar said in spite of this year’s drought, the center’s fields dedicated to melon production saw “ex-ceptional growth and yield.”

From center production data, Leskovar estimates that early or “right” planted melons, those planted from mid-March to mid-April of this year, would have produced up to 85,000 kilos of total production of melons per hectare. Later-planted melons were esti-mated to have potentially produced about 50,000 kilos per hectare.

“From these totals, we had up to 75 percent market-able melons,” Leskovar said. “We grew these melons using drip irrigation and are assessing the use of vary-ing amounts of irrigation to determine the effects on melon growth. Melon production is similar to that of peppers in that drip irrigation is the key, along with proper bed population and mulching of the beds.”

Melon varieties were planted at three different lo-cations including a study at the Uvalde center where plants were given 50 percent and 100 percent irriga-tion to determine effects on yield, quality and root management, said Sat Pal Sharma, graduate research assistant at the Uvalde center.

“We discovered that some melon varieties still pro-vided excellent yields with only 50 percent irrigation when applied after the young transplants are fully established, and that one specialty melon produced as well or better than a traditionally planted variety, Sharma said. “Potentially this could mean that a producer could make a lot more from planting the higher-value specialty melon instead.”

“We’re hoping the results of the work we’re do-ing . . . will enable us to expand and implement melon production of both traditional and the newer specialty melon varieties . . .,” Leskovar said.

Texas researchers seekdrought tolerant melons

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